The challenge

At the outset of the programme, sales execution was being affected by fragmented governance, inconsistent pipeline and CRM discipline, variable capability across regions, and limited visibility of performance. The business needed a more consistent operating model to improve how teams qualified, managed, and forecast opportunities, while also creating stronger alignment across markets.

A wider adoption challenge also needed to be addressed. CRM had to be positioned not as an administrative tool, but as a practical enabler of performance, collaboration, and decision-making. Making that shift sustainable required clearer governance, structured learning, stronger integration into workflows, and a more consistent way to reinforce expected behaviours across teams.

The approach

The programme introduced a structured Sales Excellence framework to define what good looked like across governance, qualification, pipeline management, CRM usage, and performance visibility. A Sales and CRM Governance Playbook was created, deal-approval thresholds and qualification criteria were defined, and learning modules were rolled out across regions to support more consistent adoption. These modules were later embedded into onboarding, ensuring that new joiners entered the organisation with a common understanding of the playbook and expected ways of working.

To embed adoption in practice, a series of workshops and drop-in clinics was delivered across global teams. These included Best Practices of Sales Excellence and Sales Lifecycle Mastery sessions, designed to strengthen capability, reinforce consistent ways of working, and help teams apply the playbook more confidently in day-to-day sales activity. Full-day Sales Excellence CRM workshops were also delivered across UK&I, EMEA and APAC, strengthening qualification discipline, structured deal preparation, and CRM best practice, and translating the playbook into day-to-day execution rather than leaving it as a static reference document.

Governance checks, required fields, stage-gate validations, and qualification prompts were then embedded into workflow activity to support compliance and improve daily discipline. KPI dashboard reporting was introduced through Salesforce and Power BI, giving teams and leadership better visibility of pipeline health, adoption, and commercial performance. Module completion was tracked, feedback was gathered, and CRM usage and performance metrics were monitored through a regular reporting cadence, creating a more structured environment for long-term adoption.

The results

The programme established a more consistent sales operating model across regions. Learning modules were completed across all regions and embedded into new joiner onboarding, creating a stronger base for long-term adoption. KPI dashboard implementation improved visibility of both adoption and performance, while the workshop and clinic rollout reinforced common standards around qualification, deal preparation, and CRM usage.

The broader impact was a shift in how CRM adoption was understood across the organisation. Feedback described the workshop rollout as a cultural shift, highlighting its role in improving collaboration, customer focus, and process clarity. By embedding governance, learning, workshops, drop-in clinics, and reporting into day-to-day operations, the organisation created a more scalable foundation for consistent execution, stronger data quality, and better-informed commercial decision-making.